Pocono Township supervisor loses public works job to angry colleague

A fiery personality conflict burned even hotter Monday night in Pocono Township, ending with a supervisor losing his full-time appointed position of director of public works.

MICHAEL SADOWSKI

A fiery personality conflict burned even hotter Monday night in Pocono Township, ending with a supervisor losing his full-time appointed position of director of public works.

Supervisors Frank Hess and Henry Bengel teamed to remove Harold Werkheiser from his position of five years in favor of installing Bengel to the position, despite Bengel's lack of mechanical experience.

Bengel has sales experience as an advertising representative for the Pocono Record and for other companies. He said he is leaving his current sales job to take over Werkheiser's old job.

He said mechanical experience isn't the most important part of the job, and that he knows how to manage "money, people and projects."

The position was budgeted at about $78,000 last year, with benefits, but the salary hasn't been set this year, Bengel said.

He also said he will not take health benefits.

Hess and Bengel have spent parts of the last year warring in public and in private over Werkheiser's job performance. Bengel has been in office for a year.

Specifically, Bengel recently complained about the department's lack of a long-term plan and Werkheiser's inability to bring that plan to fruition.

He said he got fed up in December when Werkheiser submitted one handwritten page of budget requests for 2013.

"To my knowledge, there was no thought put into it whatsoever," Bengel said. "We cannot continue down this path. With this township acting as a business, we can't keep this up."

There was confusion before and after the meeting about whether Werkheiser still had a job with the department.

According to him and former supervisors at Monday's meeting, there is a union agreement that would allow him to go back to working in a non-supervisory position and keep his 19 years of seniority.

However, Hess and Bengel said they weren't aware of any such agreement and would have to investigate.

After the meeting, Werkheiser said he wouldn't comment on whether he would go back to work with the department — with Bengel as his boss — if the opportunity is there.

"Because I think I got a raw deal here," he said.

Werkheiser also said he saw the change coming.

Bengel said he first considered the change in December, but Werkheiser said it was at least insinuated six months ago that he would be ousted in 2013.

He also said he's worried about the department with Bengel running it with no mechanical experience, and so were many in the 100-person audience who seemed stunned by the appointment.

Many in the audience also theorized the move was a result of Bengel and Werkheiser having an acrimonious relationship.

The two have often openly and loudly argued at public meetings, and all three supervisors have said the situation behind closed doors isn't any better.

Hess, who also voted for Bengel as the director of public works, said he often gets into early-morning screaming matches with Werkheiser over problems in the department.

"I've tried to fix it," Hess said. "I've tried over and over. But it's just not working."

Township residents said coming to the meetings is taxing because of the obvious discord between the two factions, with Hess and Bengel at odds with Werkheiser.

"I'm so disappointed, that's all I can say," said township resident Monica Gerrity. "I come to these meetings, and I feel like I'm in a room of high schoolers. You guys need to learn how to communicate, stop pointing fingers and grow up."